Words of wisdom

GROW! 2018 brought together a variety of professionals with lots of advice to share. From former NFL star Derrick Brooks to some all-star landscapers, here is some food for thought from the conference in Tampa, Florida:

Tino Martinez, former MLB player

Always strive to do better. “I always wanted to do better than last year,” he said.

“I pushed myself hard day in and day out.”

Be accountable to your team. “If guys showed up tired or hungover, the other guys would get on them,” he said.

Derrick Brooks, former NFL player

The best advice he got from a coach was “Be humble, but don’t be bashful.”

Be accountable to both yourself and others. “I think that’s a key ingredient to building any team,” he said.

Find your motivation, whatever it is. “Keeping your edge is about one person – you,” he said.

Mike Rorie, executive vice president, GroundSystems

Offer good working conditions to stay competitive.

Keep growing for your people, even if it’s just a little at a time. “We enjoy the winning,” he said. “It’s contagious.”

For more advice, read the full story at bit.ly/GrowAdvice.

Retaining employees is always going to be an issue in the back of a business owner’s mind. Head to our archives to see how some companies were improving retention a decade ago – it may be time to revisit some of their suggestions: bit.ly/RetentionResults

Direct mail isn’t dead. Check out our podcast with Joy Gendusa, CEO of Postcard Mania, for some direct mail marketing strategies: bit.ly/DirectMailPodcast

If you’re interested in being profiled by Lawn & Landscape, writing a story for the magazine or just have a good story idea for us to look into, visit bit.ly/companysubmission. Our editorial team will review it and see where you might fit into upcoming coverage.

Follow @lawnlandscape to get a behind-the-scenes look at the magazine and our travels. Use #lawnlandscapefeature to show us your work!

On Instagram, we like to highlight events we attend and the places we get to travel. At GROW! 2018, we got to take a look behind-the-scenes of Ameriscape Services in Tampa Bay, Florida.